This was the first of the variations I wrote on my original theme. There is a vague relationship between an Italian sonnet and a villanelle.The first rhymes ABBA ABBA for the first two quatrains. The later has repeating lines at the ends of each tercet, based on a rhyme scheme of A1 - b - A2. Alternating tercets end using the whole of Line 1 (A1) or Line 3 (A2). Line 1 of the  2nd and subsequent tercets rimes a; Line 2 rhymes b. There are more rules, but with the available 4 A rhymes and 4 B rhymes in the sonnet, I had plenty of words or full lines to get started.

Filling in the rest was “comparatively” easy. It is acceptable to make very slight changes to the A1 and A2 line as the poem progresses to maintain a sense of flow in the poem.

While the original sonnet focuses largely on the day of Juliet’s death, and only a smattering of our lives, the middle section of the villanelle gives small glimpses of our first meeting, her first major operation that was followed by many other, and our wedding. There are clear repetitions or slight rewordings from the sonnet -  this is a variation after all. And the critical line that resonates through all the poems is:

“The ambulance has come but Juliet lies dead.” This is the moment my life is overturned.